The gunman who killed eight people before he was fatally shot by a police officer at a Dallas-area mall on Saturday was wearing a tactical vest with a patch that read “RWDS,” an acronym which stands for “Right Wing Death Squad” — a phrase that has been embraced in recent years by far-right extremists.
Law enforcement officials are exploring whether the shooter, identified as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, had expressed an interest in white supremacist ideology and neo-Nazi views as they look for a motive for the attack.
Here’s everything we know about the phrase and investigation, culled from our original reporting and trusted partners, including the Associated Press, NBC News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
According to the AP, the term “Right Wing Death Squad” originated in the 1970s and was used to describe Central and South American paramilitary groups who supported right-wing governments and dictatorships and opposed perceived enemies on the left.
Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, told the news service that “RWDS” reemerged in the 2010s among some right-wing groups, who used it on stickers, patches and in online forums.
“It essentially became a phrase that was co-opted to demonstrate opposition to the left more broadly by right-wing extremists,” Segal said.
Right Wing Death Squad was the name of the smaller groups that participated in the white nationalist Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017.
According to Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, the Proud Boys — a neofascist group of self-described “Western chauvinists” — are largely responsible for popularizing the use of “RWDS” among the far-right.
Following the 2020 election, members of the Proud Boys joined supporters of then-President Donald Trump at rallies protesting the results.
Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and other leaders of the group were photographed wearing RWDS patches at those demonstrations.
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